Since I know you still love to instruct and amuse me,

For hastily putting a few questions down,

To which answers from you all my wishes will crown;

For you know I’m so fond of the land of Corinne

That my thoughts are still dwelling its precincts within,

And I read all that authors, or gravely or wittily,

Or wisely or foolishly, write about Italy;

From your shipmate John Evelyn’s amusing old tour,

To Forsyth’s one volume, and Eustace’s four,

In spite of Lord Byron, or Hobhouse, who glances